


The Real Name

by seerofbread (zopponde)



Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: #SaveWOY Gift Exchange, Anxiety, Day At The Beach, Drawing, F/M, Fluff, Names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 09:16:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11688624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zopponde/pseuds/seerofbread
Summary: Cerise has a gift to give Wander, and Wander has a secret he just might share with Cerise.





	The Real Name

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for http://cerise-the-traveling-artist.tumblr.com/ (You should check out her blog, Cerise is extremely cute and You Gotta See Her)

Cerise knew that Wander would be late, and she was still fifteen minutes early. Luckily, the beach that they planned to meet at was a beautiful one. It was also good that she had her sketchbook, but luck had nothing to do with that: she carried it everywhere for moments just like these, when she could sit on the shore, bury her toes in the sand, and push her glasses up her nose so she could draw from her surroundings. A boy covered in yellow scales played in the surf, his green mother holding his hand, and Cerise needed practice drawing figures from behind.

Drawing almost completely distracted Cerise from the passing time. She remained entirely calm for the first ten minutes past the set meet time, but then she noticed how long it had been and anxiety began to gnaw at her. Wander was probably just distracted by some pretty flowers, but what if he wasn’t?

The sketches slowed down, and then stopped. Wander was fifteen minutes late, and Cerise was starting to wonder if he was late because he didn’t want to join her. Probably not as bad as if Wander had gotten hurt or something, but right now Cerise felt like it was more likely. Wander was so well-traveled, he must know so many people more interesting than Cerise and maybe he was done wasting his time with her now.

But someone on the beach was waving an orange hand, and then she heard him call out, “Cerise!” Wander came up the beach at a run, jamming his hat on his head as he skidded to a halt in front of Cerise. “Sorry I’m late, I had to help a family carry their picnic to the beach, and then I found a little girl who needed sunscreen, and you know how it is when you start offering sunscreen at the beach, folks just don’t stop coming until you run out!”

“Did you?” Cerise asked.

Wander tapped his hat. “I never run out. But boy, did they try! I reckon we could go up the beach and offer some more if you want to later, but I realized I was making you wait up again, and that’d be pretty rude of me, huh?”

Cerise looked down at her sketchbook, blushing in embarrassment as she thought of her doubt. Wander was too nice to just stand her up like that. She should know that by now.

“Sorry I made you wait so long,” Wander said again. “Did you draw all that before I got here?”

Instinctively, Cerise drew the sketchbook closer, as if Wander hadn’t already seen that she’d almost filled the page. So far, when she showed him her art, he hadn’t given her any real criticisms, but there would have to be a first time someday, right? But it was Wander, a trusted friend and a guy known to have a full mental breakdown over a box he couldn’t open. She gave him the sketchbook and said, “They’re all really hurried. And the people kept moving so I had a hard time getting it just right, and I don’t think I shaded them very well, and the waves are--”

“Wow, this is what you make when you’re hurried?” Wander asked. “I’d take about an hour to draw this much, and it’d be all bad. You’ve gotten real good at capturing the motion here,” he went on, pointing to a sketch, “I know exactly what they’re doing there, and that’s really neat!”

“Thanks,” Cerise squeaked.

Wander handed the sketchbook back. “You wanna go take a walk on the beach? Sylvia’s around here somewhere, taking a nap if I had to guess.”

Cerise stood up. “She does seem to like doing that.”

“Beach naps are her favorite,” Wander explained, leading Cerise along the shore. “It might be a Zbornak thing, wanting to sleep in the sun or something. I mean, it’s also really nice and warm, if you don’t mind getting some sand in your fur.”

“I usually like the mountains a bit better,” Cerise said. “Cool trees and all that. It’s usually so much quieter, too. But this is a nice beach.”

“Ain’t it just the best? I don’t think even Zyzzx has such a nice beach. They certainly don’t have anyone so nice to spend the day with, anyway,” Wander said, nudging Cerise gently with his elbow.

Cerise tried again to hide her blush, but anything visible through her pink fur would never be hidden by something as simple as ducking her head. She knew she should try to say something nice back, but it was difficult to think of anything, so she settled with, “Thanks, that’s very nice of you to say.”

“Well, it’s true. It’s nice to travel with Syl all the time, but you know, it gets a little boring without someone else,” Wander explained.

Wander did most of the work in the conversation, which Cerise was fine with. She wanted to be friendlier sometimes, but Wander had enough of that for the both of them. The sun and the ocean breeze made for a pleasant walk, and if it ever seemed a bit too hot Wander would peel off his shoes and socks and they’d splash in the waves a little bit to cool down, Cerise always careful to keep her sketchbook far enough to stay dry without risking someone else looking at it.

Coming back from the waves, Cerise smiled easily and admitted, “I have something for you.”

Wander gasped. “Really? For little old me?”

Cerise nodded, shaking water from her legs as she walked back to her sketchbook. Wander followed, and Cerise sat on the sand to pull a loose page from the book. Looking at the picture she drew, Cerise had a last wave of doubt, but--she’d already said it was for him. He would at least be nice enough to say it was good, even if it wasn’t.

Holding the art in his hands, Wander gasped again. “It’s me! Cerise, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I have absolutely seen some truly remarkable things in this galaxy.”

“Really?” There was no way that was true.

“Oh, I guess the jellyfish migration might’ve topped it out, then,” Wander said, but he winked and went on, “I bet if you ever drew those jellyfish, you’d have all the galaxy’s beauty on one page.”

“They’re very different,” Cerise said, blushing furiously. “I don’t know if the same skills would apply...”

Wander laughed. “Well, maybe I’ll have to take you someday to give it a go, practice those skills.” He leaned back, holding the page up to the sun as though it would look any better backlit. “Wow, this is so neat! What’re you gonna call it?”

Cerise shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it. It’s a gift, so you can call it whatever you want.”

“I don’t want to disrespect the artist like that! Didn’t you think of anything while making it? Must’ve taken a while, did you spend the whole time thinking of it without a name?”

That was exactly what Cerise had done. She’d thought of it as a gift for Wander. But it was easy to make something up. “I guess I would probably just call it Wander.”

“Aw, that’s sweet of you,” Wander said, sitting up to put the art back on the sand and hug Cerise. Her brain might have exploded, her heart racing from the feel of Wander’s sun-warmed fur on hers.

When he finally released her, leaning back on his hands, Wander was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. Nearly a full minute passed in silence, and Cerise began to wonder what was wrong, and what she should say to correct it, but then Wander said, “You know, that’s not technically my real name.”

“Wander?” Cerise asked.

Wander nodded. “Sylvia mentioned it when we met, and it sort of stuck.”

That wasn’t so surprising. Nobody else was named Wander, so that was probably a nickname. But Cerise didn’t know how to say that without sounding like she didn’t think Wander was a good name, so she asked, “If that’s not your real name, what is?”

Wander hesitated, and he almost stopped smiling. Panic swept through Cerise at the thought, knowing how much Wander expressed himself in smiles--cheerful grins, nervous grimaces, contented smirks. A smile-less Wander was unknown territory, and not the kind that Cerise wanted to explore if she could help it.

“I mean, Wander is a good name, and it’s cool, I guess you probably don’t know me well enough yet to share a secret like that,” Cerise began, but Wander stopped her with a shake of his head.

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you,” Wander said. “Just, you know. I haven’t told anyone in so long. Nobody calls me by it--I don’t think even Syl knows it.”

That made Cerise think. Not even Sylvia? “I thought you were best friends.”

“Bestest buds in the galaxy!” Wander agreed, beaming, but he looked nervous as he added, “She knows it’s not my real name. But--maybe it’s ‘cause of where she came from, but she never really asks questions about it.”

Cerise nodded. Something came to her mind the moment Wander mentioned Sylvia not knowing his real name. She wasn’t sure it would be polite to ask, but soon there was nothing else she could think of to say, so Cerise asked, “If nobody knows to call you by it, is it really your name? I mean, everyone knows you as Wander, and that’s what you answer to. Are you happy with that?”

Wander seemed a little surprised by the question, but he chuckled. “Well, not everyone calls me Wander--but you have a point, Cerise. I usually have a nickname based on who I am and what I’m doing at the time, but I am having one heck of a great time being Wander. ‘Specially because I got to meet you.”

Again, Cerise ducked her head, hoping to hide her blush.

“Tell you what,” Wander went on, waving around Cerise’s drawing. “I’d love to return the favor on this one, but since it’s such a nice drawing, I don’t think I can really make anything good enough. So how about we keep meeting up, and you can give me some drawing pointers, and when I’m good enough to draw you, I’ll sign it with my real name.”

“You really don’t need to give me anything back, that was basically just a warm-up that got out of hand,” Cerise said, too nervous to meet Wander’s gaze. “But if you just wanna learn how to draw...”

“Well, that sure would be nice,” Wander said softly, leaning close to Cerise, the orange fur of his shoulder brushing up against Cerise’s pink fur, “but tell you honest, you don’t have to teach me. I just wanna get to know you a little better, see if you’ve got your own weird secrets.” Here he winked, and added, “And if I already know you as well as I’m gonna, then I just wanna spend time with you.”

Involuntarily, Cerise thought of how late Wander was. Maybe, she thought, he was just saying that to be nice.

But whatever Wander’s real name was, Cerise knew Wander. She knew that he would be late, even as she decided to show up early. She knew how much he had to help people, even if it delayed him from doing something he wanted. The fact that Wander was able to cut himself off, even after he already started with the helping, said a lot about how important it was for him to have this time with Cerise.

“We should keep hanging out,” Cerise agreed, feeling the heat rising in her face. “Whatever you wanna do. Drawing lessons might be fun, but anything with you is, because I love--uh, I love spending time with you,” she said at the last minute, not sure she could handle it.

“Aw, thanks!” Wander said, throwing his arms around Cerise. “I love spending time with you too.”

For a moment, Cerise thought she might actually die of happiness. Her heartbeat raced, throbbing in her ears, and she must’ve felt feverish from how hard she was blushing. She hoped Wander didn’t notice, and at first she hesitated to touch him back for fear of him noticing.

But Cerise’s excitement got the best of her, and soon she was pulling her arms around Wander’s waist, hugging him back.

**Author's Note:**

> seerofbread.tumblr.com/support


End file.
